


Like Fantasy Football for Spies

by ariadnes_string



Category: Homeland
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-21
Updated: 2013-02-21
Packaged: 2017-11-30 00:39:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/693362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariadnes_string/pseuds/ariadnes_string
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Saul and Dar Adal divvy up the spies in the Bible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Fantasy Football for Spies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Roga](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roga/gifts).



> Almost a crossover with the Tanakh, but not quite.
> 
> a/n: Saul quotes from [A Bible Lesson on Spying](http://southerncrossreview.org/44/cia-bible.htm) (1978)  
> a/n: Moses’s spies are in Numbers 13-14: [ more info here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Spies)  
> a/n: Joshua’s spies are in Joshua 2 [more info here](http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua+2&version=NIV)  
> a/n: [Judith](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Judith)  
> a/n: [Esther](http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/The-Story-Of-Purim.htm).
> 
> thanks to alba17 for the beta!

Saul played sometimes with Adal, before Adal went entirely off the books and stopped playing games altogether. Saul was sad when that happened. Adal was the only person he knew willing to move past the relative merits of the Cambridge Six, past Benedict Arnold, and on to the spies of the Bible.

They’d usually start by arguing for a while over the Agency’s doctrinal view of the matter. Sure, Saul would say, Moses’s Promised Land op had gone belly up, with regrettable collateral damage, whereas Joshua’s mission to Jericho had succeeded. But, he'd point out, there was more than one conclusion you could draw from that.

What the comparison didn’t prove, he’d go on, was that state espionage is best carried out in (and he’d quote with mock gravitatas), “secret by professionals, unencumbered by other political or military responsibilities, and that these professionals should report in secret to higher authority who would make policy decisions without debate.” The true lesson to be drawn from the Canaan debacle, Saul would insist, was that, even on a good day, you could only ever trust two in twelve field reports. It did _not_ prove that a little public oversight was necessarily a bad thing.

“Better not let the higher-ups hear you saying that,” Adal would say, shaking his head mournfully over the follies of liberalism. 

Then they’d start the game in earnest, with Adal claiming Judas for his team. “The best mole in history,” he’d say with quiet glee. 

Saul would nod in rueful agreement, and pick Moses. “A sleeper,” he’d say. “Just needed the right word to be activated, and then what an asset!”

Adal would quibble for a while about whether Moses really counted as a spy, since operation Let My People Go could hardly be considered clandestine. But Saul would order another round and distract Adal by speculating about how the Agency could go about rigging a burning bush these days, and what effect it would have in certain arenas if they did. 

Then they’d come to the women.

Adal always chose Judith, apocryphal or not, he didn’t care. “Worth her weight in gold. Willing to set the honey trap and spring it, too? No hesitation in the end game? An agent like that is worth fifty of your analysts.”

Saul should have seen the writing on the wall about Adal right then.

For himself, he always chose Esther, though Adal would sigh in disgust, laying out the problems. “First of all, she’s driven by tribal feelings, the worst motivation. A goddamn patriot. “ Adal would make the word a sneer. “You can’t depend on people like that—they’re driven by sentimentality, highly changeable: one day they’re paralyzed by depression, the next day they’re blowing up a building without telling you.”

“They just need the right handler,” Saul would demur. “Mordechai did fine with her.”

“And then there’s Stockholm Syndrome.” Adal would wag a warning finger in Saul’s face. “She spends all that time with Ahasuerus—she starts caring about him, thinks he cares about her. Sure, she gets him to do the right thing on the whole Haman issue, but who knows about the next time? Maybe next time Mordechai needs her, she’s too caught up in her _feelings_ and the _romance_ of it all to be any use whatsoever. A patriot in love with a man on the other side. Nothing could be worse than that.”

And Saul would feel obscurely challenged, even though it was just a stupid drinking game, something to pass the time. Why did it mean so much to him to believe Esther would keep the faith with Mordechai? he’d wonder. Why did he care so much whether she could work out a negotiated peace with the Persians without betraying her people?

“You're too sensitive for this job, Berenson,” Adal would say, tossing back the rest of his drink. “Esther should’ve taken him out when she had the chance. Give me a clean kill, any day.”


End file.
